Seventy-five
year old Salim Mutlu formerly kept a grocr'sy
shop in the village of Alçýtepe
on the Gelibolu (Gallipoli) peninsula. As a
child, like others living in this area, he used
to make money gathering debris left from the
Gallipoli Campaign of 1915-1917 and selling
it to scrap dealers. This continued until he
opened a village shop, and with shelf room to
spare began to display his finds, which seemed
too interesting to sell as scrap metal. The
collection gradually grew over the years, until
the village shop had become a museum in all
but name. Nothing remaining from that tragic
World War I campaign was dismissed as trivia
by Salim Mutlu, whether a cigarette box pierced
by a bullet hole or beads from a broken rosary.
Local farmers began to bring him objects they
discovered while ploughing their fields, and
soon the pistols, rifles, shrapnel, bullets
and other paraphernalia of the battle fields
outgrew the shop. Mutlu then turned the coffee
house next door into a single-room museum. Still
the collection grew, and he donated part of
it to Kocatepe Museum. Finally he decided that
the time had come to take down the

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2002 / MARCH

shop sign and replace it with the word Museum.
That is the brief story of the Grocer Salim
Mutlu Museum, Turkey's first private militaria
museum. The two rooms of the former shop and
coffee house have a total area of just over
100 square metres filled with all kinds of things
left behind by the Turkish, French, German,
British, Australian and New Zealand soldiers
who fought at Gallipoli. Firearms, grenades
and bullets lying on the shelves and heavy field
guns weighing tens of kilos make a mute appeal
for peace. Facing them are porcelain insulators
for telegraph lines, cups, Coca Cola and drink
bottles, water flasks, and even glass vases.
Most evocative of all are photographs and letters
written by the soldiers. Next to the weapons
section are bandages and unopened medicine bottles
that were abandoned before they helped to cure
anyonsn injuries. There are large water jugs
of English porcelain, drinking glasses, metal
plates and cups battered by bullets which rained
down during one of the many battles, and British
made dishes, knives, forks and spoons. Insignia
belonging to enemy officers, medals and decorations

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are now aligned side by side. There is also a
large collection of stamped marks used by the
various divisions and regiments which fought alongside
and against one another, and Turkish postmarks.
There are buttons of diverse colours and designs;
some made in London, some in New Zealand and some
in Istanbul. Rings, the most sentimental of all
types of jewellery, are here, but whether engagement
or wedding rings who can now say? In the most
prominent position are items of religious significance
in the form of crucifixes and crescents that the
wearers had hoped would give them courage and
strength in times of danger. Hundreds of coins
from various countries that were never used again,
metal plaques bearing the names of regiments,
shoe horns unspoilt after years beneath the soil,
cartridge belt buckles inscribed in different
languages, a jar of shoe polish and scores of
other objects each tell their sad stories. Although
modest in appearance, the Grocer Salim Mutlu Museum
has a greater diversity of exhibits than many
others in the region, and attracts large numbers
of Turkish and

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foreign visitors. Salim Mutlu has witnessed
many emotional moments when visitors have come
across their grandfathers' names on identity
bracelets, and he recalls one woman who wept
when she recognised her grandfather in one of
the photographs of Anzac soldiers. It is at
moments like these that he is proud of having
rescued mementos that would otherwise have been
lost for ever, so preserving history for future
generations. Although the casualty rates at
Gallipoli were extremely high, it has nevertheless
been described as a Gentlemen's War by some
historian. Many books written about the Gallipoli
Campaign in various languages can be seen at
the museum, whose renown has spread far beyond
Turkey's borders. The Imperial War Museum in
London has sent Salim Mutlu several photographs
of the campaign for his collection.

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/ MARCH

Just inside the entrance is a photograph of
two soldiers who fought on opposite sides at
Çanakkale and recognised one another
at a reunion for Gallipoli veterans in Istanbul
55 years later. It depicts a former Nigerian
sergeant with the man whom he recognised as
the Turkish lieutenant who had given him a drink
of water from his flask during fighting in Gallipoli
all those years before. He thanked him and they
embraced and kissed.